No. 1425

Tenderloin Steak with Madeira, half-Glaze

Filet de Boeuf au Madere, Demiglace

Have the tenderloin prepared exactly as for plain (No. 1423), seasoning it with salt. Put some clarified butter in a saute pan (Fig. 130), when very hot add the tenderloin to cook it slowly, turning it over six minutes after it has been on the fire, then finish cooking, which will take about twelve minutes in all; drain off the fat and pour into the bottom of the saucepan, half a gill of half-glaze sauce (No. 413), and a quarter of a gill of good Madeira wine. Reduce quickly, turning the meat over, then dress the tenderloin. Pour into the stewpan a quarter of a gill more Madeira wine, reduce the whole to half, strain the gravy, put it back into a saucepan, stir in some very good butter, then pour the whole over the steak.

← No. 1424 Tenderloin Steak with Anchovy Butter Beef No. 1426 Tenderloin Steak with Marrow →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have a pot of half-glaze already reduced and waiting; everything else here is a fast pan sauce. The hinge is the finish: the butter goes in off the heat and must not boil, or the sauce breaks and turns greasy instead of glossy.

GillsA gill is a half cup, so half a gill is 4 tablespoons of half-glaze and a quarter gill is 2 tablespoons of Madeira, added twice. The small quantities suggest a single portion, though the recipe gives no yield.
Half-glazeNo. 413 is the book's half-glaze, the demi-glace of the classical French kitchen: espagnole and brown stock reduced together at length. A good reduced veal or beef stock, thick enough to coat a spoon, stands in; commercial demi-glace concentrate works but is salty, so hold back on seasoning the meat.
MadeiraUse a dry to medium Madeira, Sercial or Rainwater, not supermarket wine.
Clarified butterMilk solids burn at searing heat; clarified butter or ghee is the point of the instruction, not fussiness. Ordinary butter here will blacken before the steak is done.
Timing and donenessAbout twelve minutes total, turned once at six, suits a thickly cut tenderloin steak; the recipe states no thickness and, despite the hot butter, tells you to cook it slowly. Judge by an instant-read thermometer, about 125°F at the centre for rare, rather than by the clock.
One pan, two namesThe text drifts between saute pan, saucepan and stewpan; it is all the same vessel. Deglaze in the pan the steak cooked in, after the fat has been poured off.
Finishing the sauceAfter the second reduction, strain, then swirl in cold butter off the heat until the sauce is glossy. If it separates it has been overheated and is difficult to recover.
YieldAs written this appears to serve one. Scale the sauce with the number of steaks, but sear in batches so the pan stays hot enough to brown.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what he cooked during his decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is one of a run of tenderloin variations — anchovy butter, marrow, Madeira — that let a waiter offer the same cut a dozen ways. The structure is pure classical French kitchen: a mother stock reduced to demi-glace in advance, then finished to order with a wine and a knob of butter, which is why the recipe is three lines long and depends on a numbered sauce elsewhere in the book. Madeira was long established on American tables, helped by an old Atlantic trade route and by the fact that the wine withstood shipping and cellaring in a warm climate better than most.